It was kind of inevitable with all these
e-readers competing for attention at
CES that some of the manufacturers would overestimate their capabilities and make promises they could not fulfill. One early candidate for the newly inaugurated promise breakers' club is the dual-screen
Entourage Edge, whose
February delivery date and $490 price have both been elevated, albeit slightly, to their new values of March and $499. The delay is clearly the most significant change, though we should note the careful wording, which states that "new orders will ship March 2010" and thereby leaves a glimmer of hope for early pre-orderers. The rest of us shouldn't be too downhearted either, it's a moderate time to wait, and we can just fantasize that the company's busy filing away at that splendiferous bezel.
Update: Entourage have gotten in touch to let us know the extra $9 on the price is for the new (as of February 1) inclusion of the Documents To Go software, and pre-orders placed before January 12 will be shipped this month. Candidacy for promise breakers' club is denied. Better luck next time.
posted February 18th 2010 8:19AM
First i saw this thing I wanted to buy one... but now there's the Adam... dunno which one would be better for me...
I want one for my college stuff.. but which one suits better? This one or the Adam?
@Kaboof : Ask when anyone has tried any of them in the field! This has the multi-screen thing in its favour, but the Adam seems like it'll be the more potent general-purpose computing device. Honestly it's too early to tell.
@Kaboof Depends how important handwriting notes is to you. I'm planning to use this as a Tablet PC-lite machine. This is the only one out there so far that has a journal/sketch program (for creating notes or writing on pdfs) but it's not as stash-in-a-purse portable and would probably be a pain to use standing on a bus/subway during commute.
Some of the new machines look great, but I really want handwriting/journal as a stand alone function (in addition to annotating ebooks) and I love the idea of dual screen and being able to look stuff up (or check email/twitter etc.) on one screen without sending the file I'm actually working on to the background.
@sarah11918 The Adam is Android based too so i think there should be the possibility to add a sketch program? And yes creating notes and writing and highlighting is very important for me too, that's why it has to have some kind of Touchscreen.
The portability thing is not my main problem as I'm actually carrying a subnotebook with me and this thing wont be bigger for sure and i hope the book style would make it more robust
@Kaboof It's not the Android part that's the note-taking part, though - it's the e-ink side. Have you ever seen the program "Journal Note" for Tablet PCs? Whatever application is on the e-ink side of the screen looks a heck of a lot like that one. The LCD on the eDGe is only touch based, not really intended for use with a stylus for writing.
So, that's why I say that this one is the only one to really do handwriting like a Tablet PC, although without the handwriting recognition. (You just save any notes you take as pdfs). None of the other newe e-readers from CES employ a stylus. I suspect if you want to "sketch" on them it would be like finger sketching on the iphone (if an Android app exists, which probably does?), not for notetaking.
Units ordered before January 12, 2010 are still scheduled to ship on Feb. 26. I think the price went up as of Feb. 1, 2010. The company's website states that they received more orders than they expected, so they had to choose the cut-off date of Jan. 12 for the original shipping date of "February 2010."
We have had to inquire about the ship date for our pre-order because we're traveling around that time and need to know when exactly it will ship to know which address to use. They are still claiming Feb. 26 for our pre-order.
Please keep up your fight against bezels! If there is one thing that makes me lose interest in gadgets that are supposed to be portable, it's oversized bezels.
@Tuxie from the pictures i would say that bezel is just right sized to put my thumb on and hold it with one hand and give some stability... and if there's one thing that makes me lose interest in gadgets is a lack of usability
@Kaboof, everyone is so concerned with bezels, is there an engadget excluding bezels.
I like small bezels on my phones, but u gotta hold these larger devices with one hand much of the time. I think most people cryin about bezels most likely have never spent time with a tablet or e-reader.
@Irondog My personal reason for disliking bezels for "portable" stuff is that I want it to fit in a pocket and still have as large screen as possible. A 6" e-reader with tiny bezels would be perfect for casual reading on the subway but it doesn't exist yet.
@Tuxie , yeah well I want an open source console that plays every thing atari to ps3, with the ability to connect online with any console format. I don't crap on every system that fails to meet my standards. 6 inches Is too big to fit in most pockets(open to interpretation). But apple could prove me wrong by telling us there is a gap between phones and tablets that needs a device.
@Irondog I grabbed the smallest book I could find in my bookcase: O'Reilly's vi Editor Pocket Reference. It's just over 8" diagonal. A device that size with a 6" screen would still have plenty of room for bezels: about 0.5" on the top and the sides and 1" at the bottom, it would be easy to hold in one hand and it would easily fit in almost any pocket.
Lots of companies are announcing ebook readers right now so it's only a matter of time before such a device will appear. I'm guessing within a year from now.
BTW, in 5-10 years you will probably be able to build such a console yourself. You can almost do it already today if you skip PS3/XBox360 support. There are usable emulators for almost all consoles including GameCube, Wii and PS2 if you have a beefy enough computer. :)
Hmmm not sure about this, looks a big clunky dont it?
I wonder what The Courier will be like?
And the iPad?
Too much gadge!
Aaarrrghhhh!
why oh why couldn't they find an e-ink manufacturer to match the screen size of the LCD? 9.7" e-ink, 10.1" LCD.
Different bezel sizes just generally makes this thing look sort of cobbled together at the last moment.
Big bezel = ok. Different sized big bezels?????
Unfortunately, this article is a little misleading. The original ship date for February is still true for those who pre-ordered. No promises were broken. Also, the increase in price by $9 is because they are now bundling additional $29 software with it, Documents-To-Go, so that Office documents can be viewed and edited. This is a good thing. Those who pre-ordered get this software with no price increase (gratis).
Side Notes: The fact of the matter is the Edge’s LCD portion can do everything the iPad can do and the bottom of the line iPad costs the same as this whole device. The Edge surpasses the iPad by including a true e-Ink eReader that can take notes and scribbles, annotations, etc. Also, I can hook up a keyboard to the Edge via Bluetooth or USB port. The memory is expandable and I can change the battery myself. It includes a video camera and dual microphones.
I can fold it up and take it with me without worry of the screens getting ruined or scratched. For professionals and students it really is a great device.
...and if Steve Jobs puts a bezel on his TamPad, it's OK? or better than OK, becaus eit was blessed by St. Steve? I hate the Jobsgobblers...if it functions, or better yet, multi-functions, that's my primary concern.
Note: LCD screen is resistive, not Wacom-enabled like the e-paper side.
It's easy to list off things this can do that the iPad can't, but each bonus pays a price in heat, bulk, and sluggishness.